Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Two men down

Just an hour or so till kick off. And again I'm not really sure what to say. On paper you feel this game should be far easier than people seem to be expecting. Remember we've already gone over there and won - this is the simple bit against a team just beaten by the Faroes.

But how distracting has the preparation been? Seems to be a problem with some Rangers players, a little case of history repeating itself at Ibrox with Smith and McCoist unable to halt a slide back to the unprofessional (although successful) days of Smith's last reign.

If Barry Ferguson was aware of a curfew and willfully ignored it then it really should be time to edge him out of the starting eleven. A captain with that much experience should not let themselves get into this position - he's 31 now so you can't really excuse him for being a bloody idiot. McGregor? What a time we're living in when both Old Firm keepers seem to be pretty much crazy. As I pointed out on Twitter earlier, at least there was no rowing boat involved.

April Fools dealt with, what can we expect tonight. Not more of the same. It's a home game against inferior opposition and it seems likely our formation will be a lot different. I still worry that Fletcher and Miller are unlikely to spark a goals bonaza so it will, as ever, be important that Darren Fletcher and Scott Brown get forward in support.

Hopefully Craig Gordon will be fully prepared despite the strange build up. He won't let us down and should, after tonight and recent events, be installed as Scottish number one again. At the back McManus will be hoping to show that he is now full time captain material - the only question mark is his injury but if he's been declared fit then good luck to him. It's unlikely that Hutton will last 90 minutes but he will offer something that we've been missing.

I don't predict a classic but I think we might end up winning with something - not much, but something - to spare. C'mon boys, don't let me down!